One of Australia's best-known outback characters, Tom Kruse, has died in Adelaide, aged 96.

Known as the Birdsville Mailman, Mr Kruse delivered mail and other supplies to a wide region of the outback from 1936 until 1957.

The story of his two-week road trips was recorded in a 1954 documentary Back of Beyond, putting him on the national stage.

Esmond Gerald (Tom) Kruse was the 10th of Ida and Henry Kruse's 12 children and started life at Waterloo Corner, just north of Adelaide.

Mr Kruse was awarded an MBE in 1955 and was inducted into the National Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs in 2000 and recognised as an Outback Legend by Australian Geographic magazine in 2003.

The then-governor-general's wife Lady Slim flew to Birdsville in 1955 as part of an outback tour to present the MBE, but Mr Kruse could not make it to the ceremony because of outback flooding. He later got the medal in Adelaide.

Mr Kruse's best-known mail truck was a 1936 Leyland Badger, which finally broke down and was abandoned at Pandie Pandie station in 1957.

The Badger was rescued from the desert in 1986 and fully restored by a group of enthusiasts in Adelaide during the 1990s.

Repairs on the run

An ABC documentary outlined how mechanical innovation became a vital part of Mr Kruse's outback journeys: "The fuel pump let him down and he put a container of fuel up on the roof and knocked a hole through the bonnet and put a pipe to the carburettor."

Former governor-general Major-General Michael Jeffery unveiled one of several busts of Mr Kruse, at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills in 2008.

"I think we use the term hero far too frequently when it doesn't really apply, but I think in this case it does. He saved lives in many of his activities," he said.

The governor-general reminisced about his experiences as a soldier in Borneo and Vietnam and how important getting a letter was, imagining it would be the same for a remote station stockman, boundary rider or mother living at a remote homestead.

He said Mr Kruse carried lollies in his truck for children on the homesteads so they would rush to the gate to be first to let him in.

A funeral service will be held in Adelaide. Mr Kruse's wife Valma died last year.